I agree with your overall thesis. However, the bar example is not the best to use, as virtually all jurisdictions that permit firearms carry, either open or concealed, bar the carrying of firearms into bars, for reasons that shoud be obvious, even if perhaps they are not the best reasons. One or two states are considering modifying their laws to change the situation, but passage is far from certain.
Hate crime laws do little or nothing to deter the very crimes at which they are directed, and the abuse of such laws by some organizations will, in my view, lead to discrimination against the very groups that the laws were originally designed to protect. Judges can always ‘throw the book’ at particularly heinous crimes, anyway.
Finally, many such hate crimes, particularly against homosexuals, seem to be directed at people in the age range 16-21: people in this age range are not permitted to purchase handguns, so they need to consider other means of defense, especially in view of the relatively new practice of beating such people with [aluminum] baseball bats, which is clearly an attempt to kill.
